Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA — Forty of SpaceX’s satellites crashed to Earth in flames after being hit by a solar flare. Here are the details:
CNBC reports that up to 40 of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites crashed to Earth after being hit by the effects of a solar flare.
The event unfolded on Friday, February 4, after SpaceX launched 49 new Starlink satellites on one of its Falcon 9 rockets.
The rocket released the cluster of satellites at a relatively low altitude.
This move unfortunately backfired, as the Earth was at that moment being hit by a solar flare.
The extra energy coming from the Sun heated the atmosphere and caused it to become 50 percent more dense.
This meant that the satellites became trapped in air that was too dense for their design.
The denser air caused more atmospheric drag around the satellites, forcing SpaceX to turn them sideways, to minimize atmospheric drag while waiting for the atmosphere to become less dense.
But this did not happen fast enough, and when SpaceX instructed the satellites to maneuver to higher orbit, the additional drag overcame the low-power motors, so they could not maneuver the satellites.
This meant that the satellites couldn’t rise higher to escape, so they crashed back to Earth.
SpaceX said it launches its Starlink satellites at lower orbits so they will quickly de-orbit if anything goes wrong. It says the satellites are designed to burn up in the atmosphere, with no parts falling to Earth’s surface.
SOURCES: CNBC, The Guardian
cnbc.com/2022/02/09/spacex-losing-starlink-satellites-due-to-geomagnetic-space-storm.html
theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/09/spacex-to-lose-up-to-40-starlink-satellites-after-geomagnetic-storm
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA — Forty of SpaceX’s satellites crashed to Earth in flames after being hit by a solar flare. Here are the details:
CNBC reports that up to 40 of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites crashed to Earth after being hit by the effects of a solar flare.
The event unfolded on Friday, February 4, after SpaceX launched 49 new Starlink satellites on one of its Falcon 9 rockets.
The rocket released the cluster of satellites at a relatively low altitude.
This move unfortunately backfired, as the Earth was at that moment being hit by a solar flare.
The extra energy coming from the Sun heated the atmosphere and caused it to become 50 percent more dense.
This meant that the satellites became trapped in air that was too dense for their design.
The denser air caused more atmospheric drag around the satellites, forcing SpaceX to turn them sideways, to minimize atmospheric drag while waiting for the atmosphere to become less dense.
But this did not happen fast enough, and when SpaceX instructed the satellites to maneuver to higher orbit, the additional drag overcame the low-power motors, so they could not maneuver the satellites.
This meant that the satellites couldn’t rise higher to escape, so they crashed back to Earth.
SpaceX said it launches its Starlink satellites at lower orbits so they will quickly de-orbit if anything goes wrong. It says the satellites are designed to burn up in the atmosphere, with no parts falling to Earth’s surface.
SOURCES: CNBC, The Guardian
cnbc.com/2022/02/09/spacex-losing-starlink-satellites-due-to-geomagnetic-space-storm.html
theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/09/spacex-to-lose-up-to-40-starlink-satellites-after-geomagnetic-storm
